To send comments about the project

You can send your comments to the U.S. Forest Service by mailing them before June 26 to Pete Gomben, environmental coordinator, Cleveland National Forest, 10845 Rancho Bernardo Road, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92127.

Comments may be made via telephone at (858) 674-2901 or fax at (858) 673-6192. Hand delivery of comments may be made between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on business days at the address listed above.

Comments may also be emailed in a Word (.doc) rich text format (.rtf), portable document format (.pdf) or text (.txt) format to pgomben@fs.fed.us.

When it comes to controlling the spread of feral pigs in San Diego County, the public hunting effort isn’t doing the job.

That has led federal agencies to launch an ambitious program that will use cage traps, corral traps, federal hunters with guns and dogs and even shooting from helicopters to exterminate the area’s population of wild swine. Officials see the pigs as a threat to fragile ecosystems and public health and safety. Environmentalists worry about the damage wild pigs will do to the county’s sensitive habitat, much of it rebounding from Southern California’s catastrophic wildfires of the last decade.

The U.S. Forest Service estimates there are 200 to 300 feral pigs in San Diego County. There’s also a small sounder of pigs near the Riverside County border that likely was there prior to the release of pigs in late 2006 on the Capitan Grande Indian Reservation behind El Capitan Reservoir in the San Diego River bed. Hunters who spend a lot of time in the backcountry say the population is three to four times that now and it will be useless to try and eradicate them.

Still, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are developing a plan to eliminate as many feral pigs as possible, as soon as possible.

"Our focus has to be what we can do at this point to control the effect they are having now," said Joan Friedlander, supervising ranger of the Palomar District of the Cleveland National Forest. "But it also has to be about controlling the population, keeping it low and at a threshold so it’s not growing exponentially and beyond what we can handle."

The project will be carried out by personnel from the U.S. Forest Service, the BLM, the USDA Wildlife Services or other agencies or their representatives. Pigs that are trapped will be euthanized on-site or taken off-site to be euthanized. Carcasses will be disposed of according to local and state statutes.

The present scoping period in which the public may comment on the project began Saturday and extends to June 26. Pete Gomben, the Forest Service’s environmental coordinator, said after June 26, a draft environmental assessment will be drawn up, and the public will have another 30 days to comment on that draft document.

"We want to get as much feedback from the public as possible," Gomben said, adding that a public forum likely will follow to get more input from the public before the extermination program begins.

By summer’s end, the pig project could be in full force, and it’s expected to be very expensive. Friedlander said the price tag depends on how much aerial work is done and how much telemetry satellite work is involved in it.

"The cost is variable," she said. "But it won’t be inexpensive. It will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars."

It’s been nearly five years since a small herd of 30 to 40 domestically-raised Russian pigs was released behind El Capitan Reservoir by, according to sources and one Department of Fish and Game warden, a member of the Barona Tribe of Indians who wanted to start a hunting program.

Although some hunters have been successful on private ranches, most public hunters fail to fill a pig tag because the pigs are mostly nocturnal and roam in the deepest, most inaccessible and vegetated canyons in the backcountry. Hunters not only have a hard time finding them, but once they do, there’s the increased challenge of killing one followed by the grueling, physical chore of packing it up and out of some the most rugged terrain in the county.

"It’s not like packing a deer out," said veteran public lands hunter Don White. "Pig meat is denser and heavier."

Hunters contacted by the Union-Tribune say it’s too late to contain the county’s population of wild hogs. Some asked why the Forest Service can’t offer more information on exactly where these feral pigs are and detail the best access to them. Friedlander said public hunting is one tool to use for control of feral pigs, but it also could interfere with the project and harm attempts to trap larger groups at one time.

"If a hunter gets into a group of these pigs, he’ll take one, but the rest will scatter after the shot," Friedlander said, adding that the pigs then will be harder to find and kill by government hunters and trappers. She said scientists say the county’s back-to-back wet winters will be conducive for a population explosion of pigs.

"A sow can have three litters a year, an average of 10 in each one," she said.

Gen Murofushi, an avid hunter who uses dogs to track and hunt feral pigs, believes the county's feral population is closer to 1,000 than 300. He joins some hunters who believe the Forest Service’s program will be a waste of taxpayer money and a shame, considering the DFG lists wild pigs as a game species and sells pig tags to hunters for $19.95 each.

He believes the pigs will help the ecosystem by benefiting the oak tree production (driving acorns deeper into the ground with their hooves, thus “planting” more oaks) and take pressure off deer herds by supplying mountain lions with another food source - the other white meat.

"From my experience, seeing the food source the pigs are eating, I don’t see a real impact on the native species," Murofushi said. "Looking at their scat, I mostly see acorns, grass, seeds and water plants. I’m sure there are many people who will disagree, but this is just what I see in our local mountains."

Murofushi said the feral pigs and their offspring that were released behind El Capitan Reservoir now roam as far north as the Palomar Mountains, beyond Warner Springs to the east and below Interstate 8.

"The hogs are scattered over a large tract of land, and it’s going to be hard to eradicate them at this point,” Murofushi said. "I believe the population is about 900 strong from south of Interstate 8 to north of Palomar Mountain and east to Banner. I think people are making more of a big deal than they actually need to, but we’ll see what happens. I’ll continue chasing them with my dogs."